Ras El Hanout Baked Chicken

This is a perfect midweek “throw it all in one pot and cook” dish which packs the most ridiculous flavour punch while being the most low-effort dinner I’ve made in a while. You could use skin-on chicken thighs (use 8) but I don’t really like those.

Ras-El-Hanout is a fabulous mix of spices. I got mine from a little deli, but I’m sure I’ve seen it in world food aisles of bigger grocery shops. It means “head of the shop” and is usually made up of the best of spices. The exact spices and quantities are not set in stone, but usually combine all of the delicious ones – cumin, coriander, cinnamon, ginger, turmeric, cardamom etc. Mine had rose petals in it too!

This is a full on one pot dish – everything in an oven-proof dish, bake, serve. So quick. So delicious. So what are you waiting for?

Lasagne Pasta Bake

So, there’s not much pasta to be had in the shops so you can’t be choosy about the type you’re using. My boyfriend casually mentioned yesterday that we hadn’t eaten lasagne in ages (probably years) and today I got a delivery from a local fresh food market who have had to close but are rolling with the punches and reinventing as a delivery service. We got onions, carrots, peppers and mince (among other lovely things) – so I had all the fresh basics for lasagne! 

Pre-cheese phase

Now we had  zero lasagne sheets in the house, but this lockdown requires adaptability and inventiveness. AND bonus, I prefer it with shaped pasta.

Chicken and Mozarella Pasta Bake

My guilty food pleasure is M&S ready meals. I normally have no tolerance for cutting corners in cooking when I feel that it is to the detriment of end product, but sometimes you just want (or need!) something ready to immediately throw in the oven. However, I also like to know what’s going into the food I eat, and the fussy part of me (a remnant of my childhood) appreciates that I can pick and choose exactly which ingredients are used. You’ll notice, for example, that I rarely cook with tinned tomatoes, because I hate those big pulpy bits that you can get. A nice sieved passatta is much preferable for me! Keep it smoooooth.

Anyway, back to the point, my absolute favourite M&S meal is a tomatoey, chickeny pasta meal which comes in a massive dish and which I have attempted to recreate numerous times, to no avail. So I decided to ditch all recipes and just wing it.

And it turned out well! I am in love with this meal – yes it takes quite a bit longer than a ready meal (mainly because of the cooking time of the sauce) but it is also fresh and delicious and flavoured exactly the way I like it. And there's enough food to last for days! Yum yum.

Mozarella and Roasted Squash Pasta

Ooh, autumnal cooking, I do like you.

I’m always looking for delicious pasta bake dishes for mid-week dinners. You see, I love to cook, but I really really love eating. So much so that I am incredibly impatient when it comes to cooking dinner after work. I will not be lovingly stirring a risotto for an hour when all I want to do is stick my head in a box of cereal for some nutrition.

And then, the clouds parted and heavens opened because I found this delightful little recipe, that even makes enough for leftovers! Dream.

This could very easily be a veggie recipe but I added the bacon last minute as I had a few rashers to use up, and they did add a lovely smoky, salty aspect.